So Long, Interview Suit: Here Comes the Virtual Career Fair

As tech-savvy Millennials reshape the work world, employers and college career-services offices are bringing the job-search process online with tools like virtual career fairs and finely targeted email feeds of job opportunities (for students) and candidates (for employers).

Later this month, tech startup Collegefeed will host a “digital career fair” for students at Carnegie Mellon University. Participating companies–38 have signed up so far–will identify what positions they’re looking to fill, and will be matched with students whose profiles fit the bill. The week of the event, employers will contact the students they’re interested in interviewing.

In other words, with just a few clicks, a student’s résumé could make it to every relevant, virtual booth at the fair–no interview suit needed.

While lacking human element of a traditional job fair, the virtual fair will allow students to get in front of recruiters who wouldn’t otherwise travel to Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus, says Kevin Monahan, associate dean for career and professional development. (For example, Angie’s List had a single job posting last year on Carnegie Mellon’s jobs board but is branching out at the digital fair.)

Collegefeed is also supplying college career offices with tools like searchable catalogs of résumés and data for which companies requested connections to students and why, to better position students during the next recruiting cycle. Stanford University and the California Polytechnic State University will be among the schools trying out the new features.

Cal Poly started using one of Collegefeed’s other services, an email feed that suggests prospective employers to students based on that person’s interests and experience, in January. Career Services Director Martin Shibata likens the system to Netflix’s recommended viewing algorithm: most students are interested in Fortune 50 companies, but Collegefeed will suggest less well-known firms with similar openings. For example, a student with a strong interest in print journalism might also get job listings in public relations or technical writing.

Students’ reasons for attending college have transformed in the past two decades, says Keith Humphrey, vice president for student affairs at Cal Poly, noting a greater emphasis on employment outcomes. “Career services needs to step up its game.”

Meanwhile, member schools from the SEC, ACC and Big 10 athletic conferences have tapped Atlanta-based CareerEco to run their online career fairs.

For those events—which attract 50 to 100 employers and up to 5,000 students and recent graduates—recruiters host chat rooms at designated times, sharing information about their hiring process, openings and life at the company. All participants can see the questions and responses, letting employers avoid repeating the same basic facts. Employers and students can also have one-on-one sideline conversations, which provide the person-to-person element of traditional career fairs, says Gayle Oliver-Plath, CEO and founder of CareerEco. Some also set up video interviews during the fair.

Demand from schools and cost-conscious employers has skyrocketed in the past year, Ms. Oliver-Plath says, and the five-year-old firm’s schedule includes about a half-dozen fairs each in February, March and April this year.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding is moving the initial stages of its student recruiting online with Twitter chats, school-specific webinars and even Instagram and Vine videos detailing life as an intern. It’s all in the interest of being more approachable and reaching more candidates, says Chris Carlson, senior manager of university recruiting. It’s hard to hire en masse from any single school, but virtual tools allow recruiters to avoid wasting time in transit and connect with a wider spectrum of students. Still, face-to-face interaction matters: The company brings many dozens of candidates in for late-round interviews.

University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business hosted its second virtual career fair earlier this spring, signing up about 300 undergraduates to engage with 11 companies, including Macy’s and TD Ameritrade Holding. Just a few of the participating companies also sent representatives to the school’s on-campus fall fair, which attracts about 80 firms, so the virtual option puts students in front of a mostly new crop of recruiters, says Jeff Kudisch, managing director of Smith’s career services office.

“Employers aren’t all there yet in terms of embracing this,” Kudisch says. “And the students are still getting there.”